


midnight, the stars and you

by postalcoast



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: 30s Starlet AU, Alternate Universe - 1930s, Alternate Universe - Actors, F/F, Kisses, rdr sapphic week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27095833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/postalcoast/pseuds/postalcoast
Summary: Their first kiss is something Karen doesn’t quite remember - a first of many is what she calls it.
Relationships: Karen Jones/Molly O'Shea
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13
Collections: RDR Sapphic Week 2020





	midnight, the stars and you

**Author's Note:**

> this is prob an au i'm gonna revisit later bc i love actor aus sm

Their first kiss is something Karen doesn’t _quite_ remember - a first of many is what she calls it.

She doesn’t _quite_ remember who initiated the kiss, either - but that it took place in her dressing room on the set of their first picture they starred in together. Karen remembers this because it was usually _her_ who frequented Molly’s dressing room, watching Molly dip her face in a bowl of ice, watching Molly put her eyeliner on with a precision and grace that Karen had never seen before. 

Karen had commented on that, she thinks. Poking fun at her own method of leaning in real close to the mirror and having to pull at the side of her eyelid to keep it straight and taut while her other hand drew a shaky charcoal line close to her lash line.

Molly had been in this game a few years longer than Karen had, although they were practically the same age - she’d already developed a sense of eminence that Karen admired but would never really outright admit.

Molly was a hit in the silent era of films, a status that she feared wouldn’t carry over with the rising popularity of the talkies due to her accent. Perhaps that was the reason why she wasted her time doing a low-budget film such as this, one with an inexperienced director whose only claim to fame was the fact that he came from old money.

It was a downright blessing they had their own dressing rooms - a rarity that Karen had only experienced a handful of times in her couple of years of experience. Although this, Karen considered, was a requirement that Molly must’ve taken for granted.

Karen had adopted something of a Mid Atlantic accent, one that was requested by the filmmakers and directors all over town, one that Molly had said several times she wouldn’t conform to. Karen admired her for that, out of the many things she was coming to discover.

Things are still tough right now, everyone’s struggling to find work - those because of the crash and those because of the transition to sound in film. But, also - there’s a high demand for film in Hollywood right now, given it's the answer most people find as a distraction or a therapeutic diversion.

Molly was used to starring in mostly or only A-pictures, and now here she is, on the set of a B-picture at best, holding Karen’s gaze through the mirror with half-finished makeup and a half-suggestive smile. 

Maybe that’s when Karen kissed her. 

Taking Molly off guard and whirling her around in her chair, hands placed steady on the arms of the chair and leaning forward, and it’s not completely _unexpected_ but it manages to surprise Molly anyway.

The kiss isn’t perfect - less gentle and romantic than those portrayed in the movies nowadays, which everyone pretty much knows the perfect first kiss is pretty much a farce but it’s something easily bought in to. Another distraction from how imperfect real life can be.

Karen kisses Molly quick, sloppy, like her life depends on it, and Molly tries slowing it down - with her hands - still cold from the ice, placed on both sides of Karen’s face. Molly kisses like she’s the romantic interest in some sappy love story, Karen kisses like she’s trying to take Molly back to her hotel room. 

Maybe Karen remembers more than she lets on. 

***

Kisses eventually become commonplace between the two of them.

Needy, passionate ones shared in the privacy of Molly’s dressing room behind a locked door.

Slow, meaningful ones shared back in Karen’s apartment on their nights spent together.

The early stages of their relationship is what Karen could only describe as bliss. Unadulterated and genuine. But, Karen’s seen enough relationships - of her own and of others, to _know_ they usually all seem this way in the beginning. But, what she has with Molly, she _knows_ it’s different this time.

***

The tabloids and magazines and media start billing them against each other - two starlets fighting for the limelight of Hollywood’s cameras and moviegoers’ affection. Every movie they star in together becomes a battle for the leading role, every contract signing reveals the press’ thirst for blood.

Molly and Karen are professionals, they know that - unfortunately, this is the way to the top, so they give it to them, more or less. 

However, just because they’re aware of what it takes to make it in this business, they’re not bloodhounds. When rumors get spread about one bad-mouthing the other, no comment is made.

Hollywood’s infatuation with them being at each other’s necks is something they share a laugh about within the comforts of each other’s dressing rooms, each other’s apartments, each other’s beds.

An inside joke or an inside tragedy, they aren’t quite sure what to make of it. 

But it doesn’t get the best of them. Hollywood doesn’t know them, only they know each other, and that’s all that matters.

  
  



End file.
